St. Louis Blues re-sign defenseman Roman Polak

Blues defenseman
Roman Polak signed a two-year contract extension for $2.2 million today. Polak, 23, will make $1 million in 2009-10 and $1.2 million in 2010-11.

A restricted free agent, Polak becomes the last Blues’ player to re-sign for the 2009-10 season. The teams had been discussing a multi-year contract for several months. The talks went into the free-agent period (July 1), but Polak didn’t sign an offer sheet with another team. A month later, Polak and the Blues have agreed on a new deal.

“This deal took a little longer, but that’s not a big deal,” Blues President
John Davidson
said. “Sometimes they take longer than others. There’s no animosity. Now, Roman has two years to play well for us and continue to evolve. He’s a big part of our future. You need those guys that have that edge to their game, who are powerful and can skate well. Where his offense goes, we’ll find out. But with Roman, nothing would surprise me.”

A sixth-round pick of the Blues in 2004, Polak has played parts of three seasons with the team. He played in a career-high 69 games in 2008-09 and averaged 21 minutes, 32 seconds of ice time, which ranked third on the team. He finished with one goal, 14 assists and a minus-15 plus-minus rating.

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